DECISION IN THE SENATE: THE OVERVIEW

DECISION IN THE SENATE: THE OVERVIEW; CRIME BILL APPROVED, 61-38, BUT SENATE IS GOING HOME WITHOUT ACTING ON HEALTH

By ADAM CLYMER,

Published: August 26, 1994

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25—
The Senate tonight passed a $30 billion crime bill that may cure a quarter-century of Democratic political problems with that issue, but it decided to take a vacation and leave national health insurance legislation behind, in continued peril.

The 61-to-38 vote to send the crime bill to President Clinton for his signature represented a major success for the President, who was widely dismissed as ineffective just two weeks ago today when the House voted not even to consider the bill. The House reversed that action Sunday evening and moved the measure to the Senate, where Republicans began a stall that ended with the vote tonight.

Mr. Clinton praised the Senators from both parties who gave him tonight's victory. "With a little good faith and a lot of hard work, Republicans and Democrats overcame the partisan divisions and false choices that have blocked anti-crime efforts time and time again," the President said.

But it was not clear whether today's success could be carried over to the health care legislation, which Mr. Clinton has sought to make the mark of his Presidency. And there were indications that both the President and his leading Democratic supporters were reluctantly considering the sort of smaller steps that they had once scornfully rejected.

Democratic Senators who have been insisting that nothing other than universal health insurance coverage would do began wondering aloud if they can pass even incremental legislation after they return on Sept. 12. Some who had vowed to stay and fight on health care said today that the pending recess was a "breakthrough."

Hyperbole aside, the six Republicans who enabled the crime bill to clear a deadly procedural hurdle by a vote of 61 to 39 earlier today are critical to the remaining hopes for health care legislation. All are occasional mavericks, and four are members of the self-styled "mainstream coalition," whose health proposal lies at the center of the withering hopes for legislation.

After that vote the President reveled in it, calling it a "brave and promising step." He saluted the Republicans and Democrats who he said "put law and order, safety and security above politics and party."

Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, he said: "Ordinary Americans all across our country ought to take heart today. In the last two weeks, members of Congress in both houses and from both parties have thrown off the bonds of politics as usual to do the people's business."

Senator George J. Mitchell of Maine, the majority leader, hailed Mr. Clinton, telling reporters that he "deserves great credit for having placed this issue at the top of the national agenda."

The Senator also saw the imminent enactment of the bill in historic political terms.

Since the 1968 Presidential campaign, Republicans have said Democarts were soft on crime. Mr. Mitchell predicted that they would still use that tactic, but added that it would be ineffective because the public had seen Democrats "trying to pass a tough crime bill" that Republicans fought.

"This could be one of those turning points in our history in terms of the positions of the parties and their public perceptions," the majority leader continued. "I think on crime, the time is over when in fact or in perception, the Republicans are seen as the party that's tougher on crime. It's the Democrats."

While he said the votes of a "courageous group of Republicans" were essential, he added: "The fact of the matter is, this is a Democratic bill. The principal author of the bill is a Democrat. The principal supporter for this bill is a Democratic President." 'The Ultimate Leverage'

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Delaware Democrat who is the author of the bill and is chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Mr. Clinton's insistence on keeping its ban on 19 types of assault weapons "was the ultimate leverage Joe Biden and George Mitchell had" in keeping the bill and that provision alive.

Ordinarily, House-Senate conference agreements are not subject to amendment. But some Republicans seized on a provision of the Budget Act of 1974 that allows a point of order to kill a bill whose spending is not authorized in that year's joint budget resolution unless 60 senators vote to waive the objection.

The Republicans listed a series of amendments to cut spending, which they labeled "pork," and to toughen some of the bill's criminal provisions as measures they would press if the point of order survived a challenge.

Once the tactic failed, it was clear that Republicans could not maintain a filibuster, which also takes 60 votes to halt, although Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, the minority leader, said he was not sure how long they would persist. Dole Regrets Failure

Mr. Dole, expecting defeat, sounded bitter. "I assume that the headlines will read, 'Republicans hand Clinton a victory,' " he said, adding, "I regret that I failed as a leader to keep our people together."

The six Republican Senators who voted to waive the point of order were John J. Chafee of Rhode Island, John C. Danforth of Missouri, James M. Jeffords of Vermont, Nancy Landon Kassebaum of Kansas, William V. Roth Jr. of Delaware and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

The only Democratic Senator who voted to sustain the point of order was Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, who frequently sides with Republicans.

On final passage, those six Republicans were joined in support of the crime bill by Senator William S. Cohen of Maine. Mr. Shelby and Senator Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin were the only Democrats to vote against final passage. Senator Malcolm Wallop, Republican of Wyoming, did not vote on final passage.

Senator Mitchell said he hoped success on the crime bill would be seen as evidence that the Senate could deal with an equally difficult subject like health care. He said that the effort to pass health care legislation would be the Senate's first priority when it returns on Sept. 12, and that until then he would deal with the mainstream group, trying to find areas of agreement. Some Praise the Delay

The coalition's bill aims at achieving $100 billion in deficit reductions over 10 years and 92 percent insurance coverage, up from the current 85 percent, by the year 2004. The bill Mr. Mitchell has before the Senate aims at 95 percent coverage by 2002 and could require employers to pay half their workers' insurance premiums.

The delay, praised by some as a cooling-off period and described by others as a necessity to let the Congressional Budget Office analyze the coalition plan, came as more and more Democrats acknowledged that it was inevitable that they would be trying for less than they once would have found acceptable.

Senator Harris Wofford, Democrat of Pennsylvania, said at a Democratic luncheon that the Senate should "take the best first step we can, find the highest common denominator we can find this year," according to one person who attended the luncheon. He recalled that the Civil Rights Act of 1957, which sought to protect voting rights and was the first civil rights bill since Reconstruction, was widely criticized as inadequate, but it paved the way to the landmark laws of 1964 and 1965.

Senator Carl Levin of Michigan said at the luncheon, "I've reached the point where incremental is better than doing nothing."

Another Democrat, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, said, "I think there is a growing consensus that an incremental approach is all that we can do politically." And, he added, "Most people want to be a part of starting something."

But while many senators saw virtue in a brief vacation, they also saw some risks. Mr. Dodd acknowledged that when they return seven weeks before Election Day, "Time is the 101st Senator. He is the ally of the people who want to do nothing." As a session ends, he said, "Fewer people can stop more."

The crime bill debate took an occasional raucous turn. Senator Alfonse M. D'Amato, a New York Republican, burst into song, more or less to the tune of "Old MacDonald":

Mr. D'Amato then unveiled a poster-sized drawing of a giant pink pig at a trough in an attempt to deride crime prevention programs in the bill. Product of the Barnyard

But Senator Frank R. Lautenberg, Democrat of New Jersey, scoffed at the New Yorker's efforts. "It's the barnyard, all right," he said. "But it's not the pig we're looking at. It's the other stuff. And if it looks like it and it feels like it and it smells like it, we know what it is."

The crime bill that overcame its final important hurdle today is the latest in a six-year effort to increase the Federal role in fighting crime.

Photo: Two Republican Senators who opposed the crime bill, Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, left, and Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming, after the Senate vote yesterday that seemed to assure passage of the $30 billion measure. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times) (pg. A19)